


In sickness and in health

by MonitorofNothing



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Hecate being extra again, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22647421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonitorofNothing/pseuds/MonitorofNothing
Summary: Hecate is sick in bed and desperately trying to keep a secret from her wife.
Relationships: Ada Cackle/Hecate Hardbroom
Comments: 26
Kudos: 76





	In sickness and in health

**Author's Note:**

> No real spoilers, but inspired by Hecate's little oversharing moment in s4 ep2.
> 
> Many thanks to Cass for reading this through and tidying it up for me.

Hecate Hardbroom was on a mission. Teeth chattering, she pulled her dressing gown tightly around her and staggered across the bedroom. Halfway to the door her head began to spin and she hit the floor with a thud just as her wife materialised next to their bed holding a potion bottle.

"Hecate! I told you to stay in bed!" Ada rushed to scoop her up off the carpet. She half supported, half dragged the taller witch back to the bed and settled her there, tutting under her breath as she helped Hecate out of the dressing gown. "What on _earth_ were you trying to do?" she scolded when her wife was safely tucked in again.

Hecate closed her eyes and clutched gratefully at Ada's sleeve until the world had stopped spinning around her.

"I... don't know," she lied. "I can't remember."

Ada's look of concern deepened and she laid a cool hand on Hecate's forehead.

"Darling, you're burning up again. I was just bringing your next dose. We need to get this fever back down."

Hecate nodded her pounding head and submitted to gulping down the bitter tasting potion. Perhaps she would be able to think more clearly in a moment. But the exertion of trying to walk had left an overwhelming exhaustion spreading through her body and before the potion kicked in she found her mind swimming again as she drifted back into an uneasy sleep.

Ada climbed carefully into bed and sat keeping watch over her until the fever had begun to subside. Then she kissed Hecate's clammy forehead and reluctantly returned to the daunting task of running the influenza-riddled Academy without her.

~*~

Hecate awoke a few hours later feeling a little better, although the world still tilted alarmingly when she tried to sit up. She flopped back onto the pillows and noticed that Ada had left her maglet there, with a message hastily scribbled across the screen. _Thought I should leave you to sleep. Message if you need anything. A xx_

Hecate _did_ need something, very much, although unfortunately her wife was the one person who would be unable to solve this particular problem. But Ada's words had set off a new train of thought. If there was one thing Hecate loathed, it was making herself vulnerable and asking for help. But in her weakened state it seemed to be the only option remaining. 

She was going to have to humble herself before Dimity Drill. She picked up the maglet, wincing at the weight of it and fired off a quick message before she could think better of it. _I need you to do me a favour._

The reply came almost immediately: _Sure. Be with you in a minute._

And before Hecate had time to wonder whether this was really a good idea there was a knock at the door and then her colleague was already in the room, gazing at her with raised eyebrows and a mouth that was trying hard not to turn up at the corners.

"Is something amusing?" Hecate croaked, wishing her voice didn't sound quite so feeble. 

Dimity blinked at her."I've just never seen you wearing pink before. I'd like to say it suits you but your face has gone kind of green so it's hard to tell."

Hecate looked down at herself, cocooned in fuschia pink wool. She was in the habit of stealing Ada's favourite cardigan as a comfort blanket whenever she felt under the weather. Under normal circumstances she would never, ever have let Dimity Drill find this out. But she was so far gone today that she had forgotten all about it.

Hecate mustered the dregs of her rapidly escaping dignity and blurted out, "I need you to take care of our plants."

Dimity looked slightly startled, but she nodded.

"In the greenhouses? Of course. We need to keep those medicinal herbs healthy right now."

"Not-" Hecate paused as her chest spasmed painfully into a coughing fit. "...Not the greenhouses. I've left the upper school Herblore Club in charge there. I mean indoors. Ada's house plants."

"But… isn't Ada looking after them? I'm sure I saw her watering them only yesterday."

"Ada is… not especially gifted with plants."

This was something of an understatement. Ada always loved so much and so generously. But while the people in her life thrived under this outpouring of affection, she somehow got it all wrong when it came to plants. She wanted them to have the best of everything, the brightest sunlight, the strongest fertiliser, cascades of water every morning, regardless of the species and actual needs of all the different plants. So some grew tall and straggly, some dropped half their leaves and others quietly rotted away in their sodden compost. Twice a week Hecate would wait until Ada was doing evening rounds and then start secret rounds of her own, armed with pruning scissors and drying spells and reanimation potion, meticulously meeting all their different needs and making them strong again before her wife had time to realise that she had been slowly killing them with kindness.

The first time Hecate had noticed that Ada did not have green fingers was before they were together, before they were even really friends. Ada had wanted Hecate's advice on some paperwork and in return she offered to help deal with the huge batch of seedlings that had just been delivered to Hecate's greenhouse. Hecate had watched in astonishment as her employer, humming contentedly under her breath, crammed each flowerpot full almost to bursting point.

She'd cleared her throat nervously, not wanting to accuse the headmistress of making a mistake but unable to stand by and watch her new plants being cheerfully mistreated.

"Are- are you sure you want that many to a pot?" she had whispered. 

Ada had gazed up at her with wide blue eyes and said simply "I don't want them to get lonely." 

Hecate had been so unexpectedly charmed by the absurdity of this, and so distracted by the sight of a lacy pink bra strap slowly sliding from Ada's shoulder and down her bare arm as she worked, that she said nothing further. She’d quietly returned to the greenhouse later on and repotted the seedlings with enough room to grow.

Ada had come to her a week later looking hopeful and offered to help out again. Hecate had not had the confidence or the heart to refuse her. So she had ended up following behind the headmistress, silently vanishing half the fertiliser powder Ada was generously doling out. At the end of the afternoon Ada had beamed at her and said how nice it was to spend time together like this, and Hecate had found herself agreeing and inviting her to come back again.

Once it started, this pattern continued until things had somehow escalated to the point where Hecate felt that she would rather die than let her wife find out that she had absolutely no talent for something that brought her so much happiness. 

Unfortunately she had been confined to their bedroom for nearly a week now and it didn't bear thinking about what kind of state Ada's beloved houseplants were in without her supervision.

She did not, of course, go into this level of detail for Dimity. She kept her explanation brief and factual. When she had finished, the sports mistress was staring at her blankly.

"Why haven't you just told her she's doing it wrong?"

Hecate closed her eyes. This was proving even more embarrassing than she had anticipated. 

"I asked for your help, not an interrogation," she muttered. 

"So let me get this straight... You're telling me that while I've only just recovered from the flu and half the school is still off sick, I'm supposed to spend my afternoon wandering the castle trying to resuscitate plants that have _no magical value,_ just so your wife won't get upset?"

"...Yes," said Hecate defiantly, fighting the urge to squirm. She wished Dimity would stop looking at her like that. "And if you mention this to _anybody,_ I'll turn you into a woodlouse."

Dimity glanced at Hecate's casting hand lying limp and exhausted on top of the blankets, and felt fairly safe in remarking, "You know, most people offer promises instead of threats when they're asking for a favour."

"I _promise_ ," Hecate said distinctly, "to turn you into a woodlouse if you tell anybody about this conversation."

Dimity gave a bark of laughter.

"Fair enough." She peered at Hecate more closely. "This really means a lot to you doesn't it?"

Hecate nodded mutely, her eyes huge and a little sunken in her pale face.

A slow grin spread across Dimity's face. "Wow. You are so _smitten."_ The grin faded as Hecate's thin frame was wracked with another bout of coughing. "Ok, ok." Dimity reached for the glass of water that Ada had left at the bedside. "Have a drink and then tell me what to do."

~*~

After Dimity left, Hecate passed the time with coughs, sneezes, and worries about her little empire falling into ruin while she languished in bed. It was the first time in her teaching career that she hadn't presided over the mid-term examinations, and she dreaded to think what a shambles they might become in her absence. Her fretting was interrupted by the arrival of her wife looking pale and trembly. Hecate's stomach churned with guilt and anxiety. Ada had been running herself ragged all week, trying to take care of everybody as student after student retreated sneezing to their beds. Nobody else had become quite as sick as Hecate but the sheer number of patients meant that the remaining staff members had got very little rest.

"... Ada?"

"I hate to admit it," said Ada faintly, kicking off her shoes and crawling into bed fully clothed, "But I think these germs have finally caught up with me."

Hecate let her wife nestle close, gently removed her glasses and pulled the blankets up over her shoulders. She could feel Ada shaking all over with cold.

"What about the school?" she murmured, hating to bother Ada when she was sick but hoping very much that _somebody_ was holding everything together right now.

"I mirrored for help. Classes and exams are cancelled until next week and there are three mediwitches downstairs. They sent me to bed. One of them will be up to check on us in a bit." Ada's words were beginning to slur now, and Hecate watched her eyelids flutter closed as her breathing deepened. She rested her fingers on Ada's forehead for a moment but her own body was so confused that she couldn't tell whether her wife had a fever. She hoped the healers would arrive soon to make sure Ada was being properly looked after.

There was a knock at the door and she sighed with relief, but it was Dimity who responded to her hoarse "Come in," and bounced into the room looking very pleased with herself.

"Mission accomplished!" she announced proudly. "Some of them were looking pretty sorry for themselves but they've all perked up now. And Ada didn't see me. I was as sneaky as a Hallow- _oh..._ " She broke off in dismay, having finally registered Hecate's glare and the huddled shape in the bed beside her.

Ada stirred and squinted at the figure in the doorway.

"Dimity? I couldn't find you... Mediwitches. In my office... told them you're in charge now…"

"Er, right. Ok." Dimity was shifting in discomfort at the sight of both her employers snuggled up in bed together.

"Oh, and Dimity?" Ada half sat up, screwing up her face at the chain reaction of aches and pains this caused. "While I'm sick... Could you water my plants? They'll be _so_ thirsty without me..."

Dimity opened her mouth, then glanced at Hecate and closed it again, biting her lip.

"... Alright," she said eventually, and her voice was very gentle, as though Ada were a first year who had just taken a tumble off her broom. "You can count on me, Miss Cackle. It's all under control. Don't you worry about a thing."

Ada gave a contented little sigh and subsided back against Hecate's shoulder. Hecate automatically kissed the top of her head before remembering that they weren't alone and blushing furiously.

Dimity gave her a wink and then turned to leave the room muttering something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like _just ridiculously cute._

Hecate called on all the magic she could find, and used it to summon her maglet from the other side of the bed. She tapped the screen and wrote: _Note to self: Reconsider Dimity's request to install new luxury broom shed._

Then she put it down and closed her eyes and let Ada's peaceful breathing lull her back to sleep.


End file.
